Global hydrocolloids Market Set For 8.5% Growth, Reaching $18.09 Billion By 2028Generative AI tools snuck into the pockets of millions more Australians this week as Apple launched its big push into the technology. or signup to continue reading The software updates delivered to smartphones, computers and tablets promise to help users compose stories and messages, edit images or create them and identify objects from the real world. But Apple's AI tools come almost a full year after its biggest rival launched artificial intelligence in smartphones and four months after one of the world's biggest tech companies made its AI play. Industry experts say Apple may still have one big drawcard for consumers, however, and it relies on keeping its promise to keep their personal information private. Apple Intelligence features arrived inside software updates delivered to the company's devices on Thursday. Rather than appear in a single app, the US tech giant has scattered AI tools throughout its menus, offering writing assistance in its own apps like Notes, for example, as well as those from third parties, and notification summaries from all apps as they arrive. Apple's AI additions also offer a photo-editing tool that removes objects in images and Visual Intelligence that uses photos to search for real-world objects. The company's AI tools have taken longer to arrive than many expected, University of the Sunshine Coast computer science lecturer Dr Erica Mealy says, but Apple could not avoid making an investment in the popular technology. "Apple had to put AI in their devices or they were definitely going to be left behind but I don't think that's necessarily a disadvantage because Apple often does that and does it better," she says. "They are more of an everyman's technology company, whereas some of the others tend to bring out the technology really soon." Apple's biggest rival, Samsung, launched Galaxy AI in its devices in January and Google followed in August, bringing more Gemini-powered tools to the latest generation of Pixel smartphones for rewriting text, producing images and even swapping faces in photographs. The iPhone's AI delay might not be the drawback it seems on paper, Dr Mealy says, if the company can convince customers their take on the technology is more practical and private. "Their approach is refreshing because a lot of the others are saying, 'AI is here, let's give all the data to AI,' and they're forgetting the fact that for the AI to be aware it needs to watch us constantly," she says. "If (Apple) can tell users a story about keeping more privacy or about how they are doing AI better that will be interesting to see." Apple's AI approach is different in that features are not only spread across apps but use two models: the company's own Apple Intelligence system and OpenAI's ChatGPT. In the first instance, AI requests on Apple devices are handled by the company's own platform, with processing on the device itself or on a Private Cloud Compute server that does not retain the data. More complex AI tasks such as composing stories or answering challenging queries posed to Siri can be handed over to ChatGPT but only if the user grants permission. Tasks handed over to ChatGPT remain anonymous, unless the user decides to sign into the service. The partnership of Apple and OpenAI is an unexpected one, Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi says, but could prove beneficial for both parties if it's handled well. "It's pulling Apple out of its comfort zone," he says. "Going out to ChatGPT was probably a very difficult decision for Apple to have made and it's to indicate to users Apple features are not going to be behind the times or antiquated." Apple will face significant challenges to ensure its own AI system keeps pace with that of standalone apps, such as Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Meta AI, Mr Fadaghi says but consumers will demand it. One in five Australian consumers say they will consider AI when upgrading their smartphone, according to Telyste research, and that figure rises to one in four for consumers who regularly use AI tools. "Consumers are thinking about what they might need in four or five years' time when buying handsets now," Mr Fadaghi says. "Devices that don't have AI-ready hardware are going to be less attractive." The additional of AI features is a key consideration for some phone buyers, Kantar Worldpanel global consumer insights director Jack Hamlin says. Twelve per cent of Google Pixel buyers say AI features are key to their choice, he says, even though sales of the smartphones did not rise this year. AI IN YOUR POCKET: 5 APPLE INTELLIGENCE FEATURES Smarter Siri: The AI-boosted voice assistant can respond to queries posed in natural language, features a new glowing light, more voice choices and can summon assistance from ChatGPT if users permit it. AI images: A dedicated app called Image Playground can generate cartoons or illustrations based on themes or inspired by photographs, while a feature called Image Wand can turn a sketch in the Notes app into a polished image. Photo editing: Apple takes a light touch to photographic AI. Its Clean Up feature lets users select visual distractions to remove them, recording its use in metadata and it supports more detailed photo voice searches. Word-wrangling: An AI-powered feature called Writing Tools appears across apps including Notes, Pages, Mail and Messages. It can proofread, summarise or rewrite text in different styles. Additional text-generation is available using ChatGPT. Summaries: Useful if a group chat gets too chatty, Apple Intelligence can summarise notifications from apps including Mail and Messages and provide a summary of what is yet to be read. Advertisement Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. We care about the protection of your data. Read our . Advertisement
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One of the most effective ways to rid your home of allergens is to buy a vacuum with a HEPA filter. These ultra-tight filters are able to capture almost all of the particles that trigger our symptoms. I'm an asthma and allergy sufferer myself, and since investing in a HEPA vacuum my symptoms and general well-being have massively improved. By properly trapping these particles within the vacuum, they don't recirculate back into the home, becoming airborne and even easier to breathe in. As H&G's home tech editor, my team of product testers and I have reviewed 53 of the best vacuum cleaners in the market. Most of them have HEPA filters, but for those with allergies, I've picked out the best three to say goodbye to stuffy noses and teary eyes. You can trust Homes & Gardens. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing the latest products, helping you choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. A HEPA filter is classed as being able to capture 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. Dyson's HEPA H13 filters exceed these standards, capturing 99.99% of microscopic particles and allergens as small as 0.3 microns. That means virtually no allergen will be able to pass through. These are the top three HEPA vacuums at a glance. Keep scrolling for the complete guide or click the navigation links to take you to each product. I also recommend learning about allergens and the importance of HEPA filters in the FAQ section below . Best cordless The best cordless HEPA vacuum for allergies With whole-machine HEPA filtration that exceeds HEPA standards, paired with market-leading suction power and in a compact and lightweight machine, this is easily the best cordless pick. Read more below Best upright The best upright HEPA vacuum for allergies For busier homes with more mess, the Shark POWERDETECT is your ideal companion to cleaning up any and every mess with minimal effort, with tight HEPA filtration and an odor-neutralizing cartridge to banish those familiar odors from dust and pets. Read more below Best HEPA base The best HEPA vacuum with a HEPA cleaning base This cordless vacuum comes with a cleaning base with five-stage HEPA filtration that captures an incredible 99.99% of dust particles down to 0.3 microns, storing dust for up to 60 days to minimize your exposure to the allergens. Read more below Best cordless HEPA vacuum for allergies 1. Dyson V12 Detect Slim Our expert review: The best Dyson vacuums use whole-machine HEPA filtration so that the air released back in the room is as free from allergens as possible. Vacuum cleaners usually have pre-motor and post-motor filters, with the post-motor filter typically being the HEPA one. More on this in my vacuum jargon buster . Instead, Dyson's HEPA filtration covers the entire appliance for much more effective particle capture. Not only does the Dyson V12 Detect Slim have an excellent filtration system, it's also a highly powerful vacuum cleaner with intelligent features that transform how easy it is to clean the house. It's the only vacuum I continue to use in my own home after the 12 vacuums I've tested at length for H&G . Its FluffyOptic floorhead has a soft brushroll to pull super-fine particles from hard floors, as well as a green laser that genuinely reveals dust that the naked eye can't see. The other Motorbar floorhead has anti-tangle veins that, in the six months I've been using it, have never once been wrapped with hair. It's lightweight and easy to use, and it uses a piezo sensor to count each individual particle that enters the machine. This is a bit of a luxury, giving you useful insight into what parts of your home are messier, but it also allows the vacuum to automatically adjust to the right suction power when it detects a particularly dusty area of the floor. The Dyson V12 Detect Slim is the smallest and most affordable part of Dyson's flagship range, that includes the Dyson V15 Detect and the Dyson Gen5detect . If you want a larger dustbin and more cleaning power, it's definitely worth considering paying the bit extra for one of these models as they're the best two vacuum cleaners we've ever tested. The V12 Detect Slim has 150 air watts of suction power, the V15 Detect has 230 and the Gen5detect has 262 (more on what that means below ). Read more in my full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review . Best upright HEPA vacuum for allergies 2. Shark POWERDETECT Our expert review: Similar to Dyson's vacuums, the best Shark vacuums also use whole-machine filtration to better prevent allergens from being re-released back into your home. But unlike Dyson, only the post-motor filter is a HEPA in Shark vacuums, and the whole-machine filtration is what Shark calls an 'Anti-Allergen Complete Seal' which works in a similar way, but is slightly less effective. Dyson's HEPA filtration captures 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns while Shark's traps 99.9% of all dust and allergens. It's only a marginal difference, and either way anybody with allergies or asthma will be feeling the positive effects from these tightly-filtered vacuum cleaners. The Shark POWERDETECT is the best upright vacuum in Shark's range. It boasts their latest cleaning technologies, like floor detection to automatically adjust the power when moving across floor types, dusty areas, and floor edges and corners. It even detects which direction you're vacuuming to optimize the airflow as you clean. A great feature of the Shark POWERDETECT is its odor-neutralization. If, like me, you suffer from allergies from dust and pets, you'll love that the POWERDETECT can banish those familiar smells after you clean, leaving a fresher scent across your home. It's also one of the most powerful vacuums we've tested at H&G , cementing itself in our lists of the best vacuums for pet hair and the best vacuums for carpet with its effortless cleaning performance across all floor types. 'It took just a single pass with each test for the vacuum to suck up whatever was on the floor,' wrote our expert tester James . Read more at our full Shark POWERDETECT review . Best HEPA vacuum with a HEPA cleaning base 3. Tineco Pure One Station Our expert review: An easy way to avoid exposure with allergens is to limit how often we're emptying our vacuums. Self-cleaning stations have become popular for this exact reason: they store weeks of dust in a tight unit, leaving you to do the emptying yourself once every two months or so. The Tineco Pure One Station has a three-liter cleaning station (around 101.4 fl oz), meaning you can store dust for up to 60 days until you or your household have to come into contact with it. The vacuum itself uses HEPA H13 filtration, the same as Dyson, and the cleaning station uses five-stage HEPA filtration to capture 99.99% of dust particles down to 0.3 microns in size. That's more than what most HEPA filters can capture. You'll be glad to know the Tineco Pure One vacuum cleaner is great at picking up hair. During testing, I actually watched as it pulled in strands of hair that were an inch or two away from the nozzle. It also performed pretty well with small and large debris, but not quite as well as the Dyson and Shark in this guide when it came to cleaning between wood panels or the floor's edges. It also struggled slightly with large debris on carpets such as red lentils and large round cereal pieces. While the vacuum's suction isn't as powerful as the big brands, it does boast smart features like responsive suction power and a detailed control panel with insights into your cleaning and vacuum health. But the real star of the show is the cleaning station. It looks sleek and has tinted glass to conceal the dust contents inside, and it's one of the tightest-filtered cleaning stations we've seen yet. It also cleans the vacuum cleaner as well as emptying it, pulling out dust from the brushrolls and internal parts for you. If you're looking for better cleaning performance however, I'd recommend the Shark Cordless PowerDetect . It cleans more effectively than the Tineco Pure One but its cleaning station doesn't have HEPA filtration. Or, the Samsung Bespoke Jet is perfect for allergies, but uses a bagged system that incurs running costs (on top of the already expensive initial vacuum cost). Read more in my full Tineco Pure One Station review . Choosing the right HEPA vacuum is largely the same as knowing how to choose a vacuum cleaner in general. But there are a few key considerations when it comes to dealing with allergies at home and understanding which is the right type of filter. HEPA is an official certification, only granted once a filter meets strict standards of being able to trap at least 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. So if a vacuum cleaner is listed as a HEPA vacuum – you can trust that it can deal with allergens. But make sure to look out for vacuums that list HEPA-style or HEPA-like filters. The language will be subtle, but there'll be something to show that the filter isn't actually a HEPA filter, and won't be able to meet your cleaning needs when dealing with microscopic allergens. Vacuums use multiple filters, one before the motor and one after the motor. The best vacuums, like the Dyson V12 Detect Slim in this guide, have whole-machine filtration to ensure that these particles are as contained within the appliance as possible. Find out more about filters and all other key vacuuming terms in my vacuum jargon buster . Close-up of Shark POWERDETECT floorhead At Homes & Gardens we like to get hands-on experience with all the products that make it feature in our buying guides. You can learn more in in our behind-the-scenes look at how we test vacuums , and there's an overview of our principles in our guide to how we test products. Each new vacuum we get the opportunity to review is tried and tested in our own homes, undergoing rigorous testing on a range of flooring and household challenges. We also test vacuums in a dedicated test studio, standardizing our examination across different messes and floor types. When testing for tight filtration and anti-allergenic features, we look beyond the filter at how likely dust can come out, how messy it is to empty the dustbin, and whether dust falls out of the nozzle after each use. We test the vacuum cleaners for a number of weeks (sometimes months) so we get a feel for the longevity and durability of each model. In some instances, we are also fortunate enough to keep the vacuum cleaners after writing up the review so we can continue to learn about them and share our findings with you with updates to our original articles. I am H&G's home tech editor , covering vacuums and floorcare on a near-daily basis. I've tested 12 vacuums in my time at H&G , including the Dyson V12 Detect Slim and Tineco Pure One Station in this guide. I suffer with asthma and allergies and a HEPA vacuum is a must in my home. James has been testing products since 2021, and in that time has spent more than 100 hours testing 20+ vacuum cleaners. He tested the Shark POWERDETECT in this guide. Does a HEPA vacuum help with allergies? Becoming familiar with exactly what common allergens exist in our homes will help to understand why vacuums need HEPA filters . The most common allergens in our homes are: dust, dander (skin cells from humans and pets), dust mites and pollen. 'Dust' in general is actually a mixture of all of these allergens and more, gathering all over our homes at all times and triggering allergic symptoms in those who suffer from them. But when we talk about dust allergies, what we're really referring to is allergies to dust mites, or more specifically the fecal matter left behind by dust mites. Dust mites feed off our dead skin cells, leaving behind waste that triggers allergies. Dust mites are microscopic bugs that feed off our skin cells and thrive in warm, dark conditions. Their existence in our homes is one of the main reasons why you should vacuum often , and why you should be regularly vacuuming your mattress . Just like dust mites, all of these allergenic substances are microscopic, stressing the importance of a vacuum cleaner with tight filtration. As HEPA filters can capture at least 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns, they can trap almost all of the common allergens in our homes. As strong flows of air pass through a vacuum cleaner and out the exhaust, not having a HEPA filter means that these allergens will be re-released into your space. Not only that, but they'll become airborne, and will only be able to be removed from the room using one of the best air purifiers , and not your vacuum cleaner. How long does a HEPA filter last in a vacuum? HEPA filters can last anywhere between one to three years, but many of the best vacuum cleaners for allergies have washable HEPA filters that can ensure continued use even past that. I'd recommend choosing a vacuum with washable filters over replaceable ones to keep costs low. Next, consider one of the best Dyson alternatives or the best carpet cleaners for pets for deeper cleaning.
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